303: A small community, crowded with thousands of people

The next day, just as dawn broke, Tian Ming awoke from his sleep. He felt refreshed and full of energy; after a night of rest, he was fully recovered.

Lisa was still leaning against the wall, sleeping soundly, and the blue Red Crystal Core seemed to have been completely absorbed. Tian Ming's thoughts stirred, and the Nanometer Avatar detached from Lisa, coalescing into a large avatar.

The large avatar's pupils were no longer dull; they seemed to possess intelligence, and although the avatars were small on a microscopic scale, when combined into a large avatar, they could perfectly simulate Tian Ming's thoughts. This was somewhat like consciousness cloning—a complete artificial AI.

At this moment, Lisa also woke up, a hint of confusion in her eyes. In her blurry state, she couldn't immediately distinguish between Tian Ming and the avatar.

"What's going on?" Lisa quickly stood up and asked.

Tian Ming smiled slightly and said, "My avatar seems to have become a bit smarter after absorbing some of the Red Crystal Core's energy."

Lisa was somewhat surprised, looking at the avatar in front of her. If this avatar could truly possess intelligence, it would undoubtedly be a miracle.

"Let's do an experiment!"

Lisa asked with some confusion, "How do we do an experiment?"

Tian Ming spoke, addressing the avatar, "Copy yourself according to your own appearance."

The avatar nodded slightly, its body instantly disintegrating. Individual Nanometer Avatars began to coalesce in the air, and soon, an avatar identical to Tian Ming appeared before Lisa.

The avatar being able to copy itself using itself as a template is a characteristic of intelligence, because each Nanometer Avatar is extremely small; to copy, the Nanometer Avatars must refer to their own appearance and use atoms to sculpt themselves. This is the rudimentary emergence of intelligence—recognizing one's own existence, which indicates that the Nanometer Avatar possesses true intelligence.

"This is too amazing!" Lisa exclaimed.

Tian Ming pondered for a moment and said, "I've read a theory that for something to develop intelligence, it first needs to be aware of its own existence. For example, many animals looking in a mirror will mistake their reflection for another animal. But those with high intelligence can recognize that it's their own reflection. The avatar being able to understand my meaning and sculpt its own appearance means it has recognized its identity and is no longer a mere puppet."

Lisa frowned and said, "Aren't you afraid of betrayal? Perhaps one day, your avatar will gain higher intelligence and directly turn on you, replacing you."

Tian Ming smiled and did not directly answer. The Yuanchu God had divided countless consciousnesses, but no matter how these consciousnesses developed, like Xin Xin's consciousness, which has existed for hundreds of millions of years since its birth, none of them ever thought of betraying the Yuanchu God. This is because the Yuanchu God is the source of all these consciousnesses.

The same is true for Tian Ming's Nanometer Avatars; the energy source for all avatars lies with Tian Ming. No matter how they evolve, Tian Ming, as the source, is the rule. Existing within the rules, it's impossible to transcend them. This is like dimensions; a creature in a two-dimensional world cannot break its two-dimensional nature, because the rules are the very soil of their existence. Therefore, what Lisa said about betrayal and replacement is absolutely impossible.

Tian Ming looked at the avatar and said, "If you betray me, you will immediately turn to dust." As soon as Tian Ming's words fell, a shimmer of light rose from the Nanometer Avatar. Tian Ming's words, like a spell, were received by all Nanometer Avatars and etched into every atom.

"Let's go! Let's find Red Crystal Cores, then upgrade my avatars and strengthen your power," Tian Ming said to Lisa.

The two walked out of the abandoned building and headed forward. The Nanometer Avatars now had three times their original quantity. Tian Ming quickly assigned numbers to them as they formed a large avatar: number one was the avatar that absorbed the Red Crystal Core, and number two was the avatar that attached to him and became armor.

And number three was copied by number one. Number three was still relatively clumsy, so Tian Ming had number three attach to Lisa, acting as her armor. It was somewhat like Iron Man's nanometer armor, but overall, it was much more advanced than nanometer armor. Number one had the highest intelligence, so it directly transformed into an invisible avatar and went ahead to scout for Tian Ming.

Tian Ming also retracted his sensing ability. This ability seemed a bit redundant now that he had the Nanometer Avatar. After all, the Nanometer Avatar could detect much further, and a human radar constantly on would also be very "power" wasteful.

"Where are you planning to go?" Lisa asked curiously.

"Wherever there are more Corpse Kings, that's where we'll go."

Lisa was startled and asked, "You're going to the Alliance Base controlled by the Corpse King?"

Tian Ming nodded: "Yes, we'll walk slowly and explore the map along the way."

As Tian Ming spoke, the Nanometer Avatars on him and the avatars on Lisa simultaneously transformed. The two became rocket-flying soldiers and flew rapidly forward.

Tian Ming was getting more and more creative with his material manipulation. He planned to have both number two and number three absorb Red Crystal Cores. After they evolved to a certain level of intelligence, he would send them to the Shelter's research center to learn simulated weapons.

Once these avatars learned simulated weapons, they could transform into their own combat mechas, and combined with Tian Ming's ability to control elements, they would essentially be super mechas with infinite ammunition and infinite energy. Even Jiang Chen would probably tremble at the sight of them.

There were a total of 12 Alliance Bases, but in this zombie uprising, only Dongshan Base and Lianzhou Base survived. The one Tian Ming was heading to this time was Su Yuan Base, located in the central region. This base was about 700 kilometers from the Shelter and had a remaining population of over 700,000.

There were also three smaller cities nearby. Tian Ming and Lisa landed in the outermost city. He didn't want to alert anyone, nor did he want to disturb Jiang Chen prematurely, because if Jiang Chen showed up, it would be much more troublesome for Tian Ming to hunt Corpse Kings.

Immediately after they landed, the number one Nanometer Avatar mapped the entire city's situation into Tian Ming's mind. Tian Ming frowned, because in the city, besides zombies, there were also some people. They were confined in a residential area, and the entire perimeter of the area was surrounded by zombies.

Tian Ming was very puzzled by this, because those confined were all young people, and the number of males and females was roughly equal.

Tian Ming's thoughts stirred, and his armor instantly transformed into ragged clothes, and the same happened to Lisa's. The instant change of clothes made Lisa a bit uncomfortable; she couldn't understand what Tian Ming meant by this.

"My avatar reported that there's a residential area with thousands of people confined inside. We'll sneak in and see what's going on; I don't quite understand it."

"You're so powerful, why don't you just kill your way in?" Lisa asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Kill my way in? Being too powerful would attract Jiang Chen, and he's immune to my abilities. If he comes to cause trouble, I won't be able to do anything. Let's sneak in first and see what tricks these zombies are up to."

Lisa could only nod and said, "Alright, you want to save these thousands of people, right?"

"As many as we can save. Let's go," Tian Ming said, then walked towards the residential area.